Harley-Davidson LiveWire will have fast charging, 140 miles of city range

Harley-Davidson continues to slowly leak out details of its upcoming LiveWire electric bike, with the latest press release sharing some performance information and also mentioning super-fast recharging times.

The LiveWire (scheduled to hit the market later this summer) will accelerate 0-60 mph in 3 seconds, and has a 60 mph to 80 mph roll-on time of 1.9 seconds—numbers that certainly eclipse any gasoline-powered motorcycles the MoCo has in the lineup. Harley-Davidson also says the new bike will have 140 miles of urban riding range. A mix of highway riding and urban riding drops that to 88 miles of range, since highway riding doesn’t top up the battery through regenerative braking.

While those range numbers aren’t great (competitors like Zero have motorcycles that offer more range for less money), Harley-Davidson makes up for it by including a DC Fast Charge system on the bike, which allows the LiveWire to recharge from zero per cent to 80 per cent battery capacity in only 40 minutes, by using a SAE J1772 connector (CCS2 – IEC type 2 connector in Europe). A 0-100 per cent charge only takes 60 minutes using the same system. Harley-Davidson says it will have a DC fast charger at dealerships selling the LiveWire.

Of course, Harley-Davidson has already announced some other interesting components and features, including stability control, smart device integration, tamper alert/vehicle tracking technology, Showa suspension and Brembo brakes. Unlike some early electric motorcycle efforts from other manufacturers, this machine will be available with high-end parts and capabilities from the very start.

It also raises some interesting questions about the company’s future. If customers are charging their bikes at Harley-Davidson’s dealerships for 40-60 minutes, how will they spend their time and money while they’re there? And here’s another newsy tidbit: Harley-Davidson also announced it has purchased StaCyc, a manufacturer of builds electric balance bikes aimed at the youth market. While the road ahead is unclear, one thing’s for sure: if it survives the current turmoil, Harley-Davidson will look much, much different in future years.